Completed Archery

The most exciting game news of this week is that archery has been completed. The video above highlights all of the archery styles currently available in the game. These include:

Shortbows and longbows. The shortbow string will be drawn back faster, but has less range. The longbows will take longer to draw back, but have further range. The accuracy and damage is determined by the skill level of the player.

Crossbows. These weapons are one-handed, so they can be equipped alongside a shield, dagger, or even another crossbow. The accuracy is determined by the skill level of the player, however the damage is constant.

Arweblasts. An Old English word that translates to "crossbow", and is my game's version of a heavy crossbow. These weapons are two-handed, and more powerful than the crossbow. The accuracy is determined by the skill level of the player, however the damage is constant.

Throwing Weapons. These weapons are the weakest of the archery attack styles, but are also the quickest. They are usually best used in the weapon slot, but they can also be thrown from the quickslot bar if you are in a pinch. They can either be thrown or used to stab or slash at the monster if necessary.

Offscreen HUD

You know Skyrim's meter at the top that shows you nearby icons of locations? It's just like that, except not really for locations. This may represent an off-screen companion to show you where he or she is at, or a custom marker the player placed, or maybe a dungeon boss.

If you aren't familiar with Skyrim, then I'll explain it differently. The "Offscreen HUD" is a simple way to point the player towards a target, objective, or anything else. The icons will display on the edges of the screen when the target is off of the screen, and will slowly shrink as it gets farther away. If the target is to the left side, the icon will be drawn on the left side of the screen aligned with the target's Y axis (vertically). Same goes for all of the other sides.

Ground Items

Items. On the ground. You'll see these in the end of the video above. There really isn't much to say about these, so I'll start off by saying what they are not:

Items on the ground may explode.

They can shoot lasers.

They can TALK.

Now for what they are:

Items on the ground that you can pick up.

Any quantity per item can be set, though usually won't be too high.

The item's icon is fetched and displayed on the ground programmatically.

Alright, that's all for this week. I know I said I would start working on magic, but next week I'll see about taking a break from combat and instead design a better way to interact with the (non-aggressive) characters. This include better dialogue user interface, the merchant UI, and the companion UI.

If you have any ideas, constructive criticism, or just want to tell me how much you hate my game, you can: Send me an email, tweet @TheShyyGuy, comment on the facebook page, or respond here!